Soemu Toyoda

Soemu Toyoda (22 May 1885-22 September 1957) was an Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy who was Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet from 3 May 1944 to 29 May 1945, succeeding Mineichi Koga and preceding Jisaburo Ozawa.

Biography
Soemu Toyoda was born on 22 May 1885 in Kitsuki, Oita Prefecture, Japan. He joined the Imperial Japanese Navy Academy in 1905, and by 1935 he was a Vice-Admiral after rising through the ranks in peacetime. In early 1943, he took command of the main battle fleet and sought a decisive battle with his United States opponents during World War II. However, this led to the disastrous Battle of the Philippine Sea (the "Marianas Turkey Shoot") in June 1944 and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October. His last major act was to send the huge battleship Yamato on a pointless suicide mission to Okinawa in April 1945, and he was replaced by Jisaburo Ozawa. In 1949 he was acquitted of all war crimes charges, the only member of all of Japan's armed forces to be acquitted of war crimes. Toyoda had opposed the amount of power that the Imperial Japanese Army had in the government and had wanted the war in China to be ended so that Japanese troops could be used in the Pacific theatre, being a smart commander. He died in 1957 in Tokyo at the age of 72.